Honor the Past, Challenge the Present, Change the Future
About Me2We Youth Leadership Conference
Goals
Leadership confidence will result from application of goals:
- Promote a positive sense of self
- Gain critical thinking skills
- Support a positive view of others
- Build the power of young people to spearhead social change
Me2We was conceptualized in 2011 as a four-year series of conferences focusing on civic engagement. The first conference was held in 2012. The projects’ collaborators envisioned a summer event that would follow in the footsteps of the 1960’s ASCORE movement, Asheville Student Commission on Racial Equality, in honor of the 50th anniversary of their work. The project stands out as Asheville’s most collaborative youth leadership program. This growth-oriented collaboration between a city entity, a school system entity, two non profits and a university now stands at three years. The conferences are, in part, planned and led by youth. Each year some 100 students in grades 8 – 12 participate in programming.
“We are not the Next generation. We are the Now generation.” – Michael Davis, Me2We 2013 + 2014 participant
The hope is to eventually grow Me2We to an intensive, residential summer social justice training similar to the ANYTOWN program of the National Council of Community and Justice.
Honoring the Past – About ASCORE
On May 8th, 2014 The Center for Diversity Education hosted a Me2We Luncheon Fundraiser, inviting community members to learn more about the program’s value for youth. Featured here are high school youth participants of Me2We as well as UNCA interns, current and past, who spoke at the Luncheon.
From 1960 – 1965, some 80+ students, mostly from Stephens-Lee High School and Allen School (segregated African American schools in Asheville), worked to desegregate Asheville. With the mentoring of William Roland and non-violent training from the American Friends Service Committee, the students used non-violent actions to undo Jim Crow at lunch counters, buses, swimming pools, libraries, businesses, universities, and more. In interviews with ASCORE students, they share that this early civic engagement had a dramatic impact on their future career choices and their belief in their own power to change the status quo. To learn more visit With All Deliberate Speed: Desegregation and Buncombe County.
Challenge the Present – Me2We 2014 – ‘Rep My City
For the past two years, the Me2We calendar has kicked-off with an event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January. The Me2We cohort gathers in downtown Asheville for the Peace March to the City County Plaza followed by a 1⁄2 day social justice training at the YMI Cultural Center.
Then, in the summer months, the main event unfolds. Following a structure of “past, present, future,” the 2- day June conference invites youth to begin exploring why the civil rights movement mattered and how to relate its relevance to challenges faced in their own lives. ASCORE’s strengths were discussed, including their account of relying on teamwork and strategy to overcome a social ill (“Past”). Students explore various outlets (physical, artistic, spiritual) for channeling their talents and examining the things that matter to them personally (“Present”). The conference showcases a menu of current civil rights/humanitarian topics, such as discrimination in schools; stereotypes and stereotype threat; gender identification; the DREAM Act and immigration reform; and/or teen sexuality. Each track met for 2 hours of workshop time during both Thursday and Friday sessions and were lead by local adult artists. In a closing hour-long Expo, each artistic track and individuals students shared ideas or performances that could help create change in Asheville.
Agenda Me2We 2014-Click here to view
Current Me2We Collaborators
Asheville City Schools – AVID Program
City of Asheville Youth Leadership Academy (CAYLA)
I Have a Dream Foundation – Pisgah View Apartments
MANOS – Latino Youth with Children First
UNC Asheville Center for Diversity Education
UNC Asheville Education Department – AVID Tutoring
Changing the Future – Supporting Me2We
Me2We 2014 was funded in part by a Sponsorship through Mission Hospital and the Perry N. Rudnick Fund of the Community Foundation. The cost of me2we as a collaborative is approximately $10,000 a year which is achieved through grants, sponsorships, and a yearly May fundraising luncheon. To learn more email Executive Director of the Center for Diversity Education, Deborah Miles, at [email protected].